Angola’s one sided election could have sting in tail

Outside polling stations, many citizens said they wanted to see a more equal share-out of wealth in the country, Africa’s second-largest oil producer.

Calls for better services, such as power, water, health and education, and demands for greater social equity, were a recurrent theme as voters cast their ballots in the seaside capital Luanda and across the southern African nation.

It is only the third national election since Angola won independence from Portugal in 1975, and the second since the end a decade ago of a 27-year civil war whose scars can still be seen in damaged buildings and amputee landmine victims.

“To destroy is easy, but to construct is more difficult,” said Graca, a Luanda grandmother, who gave only her first name as she went to vote.

“I hope that there can be peace and that we learn to divide what we have, the riches we have,” she added.

Mr Dos Santos’s ruling MPLA is expected to win comfortably at the expense of smaller opposition parties, giving the president a further five years in office on top of the 33 so far.

However, he faces a groundswell of discontent among Angolans unhappy about the unequal distribution of their country’s oil wealth, and this may be reflected in the size of the MPLA victory or the turnout.

Opponents say Mr Dos Santos has created a “one-person state” marked by rampant corruption and the conspicuous enrichment of a small elite, including his own family.

“Democracy is the power of the people and today the people have the power in their hands,” the president told reporters after voting at a heavily-guarded school just down the hill from the presidential palace in Luanda. He left in a fleet of black limousines.

The MPLA’s monolithic hold on the state and its control of most local media gave it clear advantages in an uneven campaign over the former rebel group UNITA and seven other smaller coalitions and parties fielding candidates. Opposition leaders complained of irregularities in the vote preparations. The month-long campaign was generally peaceful, marred only by an incident on Thursday in which police detained a dozen members of the CASA-CE opposition party when they tried to enter the national elections commission to demand credentials to observe the vote.

The MPLA, trying to repeat its 2008 win over UNITA with 82 per cent of the vote, has sought to ram home the message that Mr Dos Santos, 70 this week, represents the best guarantee of peace and prosperity.

However, the MPLA campaign slogan “Make Angola grow more and distribute better” reflects the ruling party’s awareness that it needs to address the popular clamour for more social equity. Some voters said they would hold Angola’s leaders to this pledge.

Others took a more sanguine view of the progress made since the civil war. There has been a rash of infrastructure construction – roads, bridges, hospitals, railway stations and airports – mostly built by Chinese and Portuguese companies.

“This country had a lot of war, you have to give it time,” said Guillermina Pereira, another Luanda resident, as she voted.